Electrical impedance detection of senescence in adipose tissue-derived stem cells

Abstract

For stem cell-based tissue engineering or tissue therapy, control of the quality of isolated stem cells is required. In this study, we used the electrical impedance spectroscopy to characterize the effect of passage on the morphological change and the proliferative capacity of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) during cell growth on the transparent ITO electrodes. ADSCs adhered to the ITO electrode and proliferated during cell growth. The phase contrast image of ADSCs on the electrode showed that the cells at passage 9 had a small and spindle-shaped morphology while the cells at passage 31 were flattened and larger than younger cells. The real part of the impedances of passage 9 cells were lower than passage 31 at the beginning time of culture due to the larger size of older cells adhered to the electrode. Then, the values of passage 9 cells were increased and distinguishable from passage 31 due the higher proliferation rate of younger cells. The experimental results showed that the impedance measurement could characterize the age-related morphological change and the proliferative capacity of ADSCs during cell growth. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.